Afghan security chiefs knew of plot to kill Karzai

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s three top security chiefs managed to hold onto their jobs Tuesday despite admitting before parliament that they failed to prevent an attack on President Hamid Karzai even though they knew about the plot.

At least one policeman was arrested in the assassination attempt, deepening concerns the Taliban have infiltrated the country’s poorly paid security forces. The attack also exposed the vulnerability of the capital to militants, who are strongest in the volatile south and east.

A suicide attack Tuesday on counter-narcotics police in the east killed 18 people, including 11 police officers. Thirty-six people, including two Australian journalists, were wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh gave an in-depth explanation to lawmakers of the assault Sunday on a ceremony in Kabul marking Afghanistan’s victory over the Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s.

Karzai and other dignitaries escaped unharmed, but three others, including a lawmaker, died.

Saleh said Karzai had been warned of the threat.

Authorities arrested a mortar team and three suicide bombers days before the attack, but failed to track down the three gunmen who opened fire Sunday from a hotel room a few hundred yards from where the VIPs were sitting.

Saleh said the gunmen rented the room 45 days before the attack and stayed locked inside for 36 hours before the shooting. They had stacks of spare ammunition and were text-messaging with their leaders, he said.

“We had technical information ... that this work would happen,” Saleh told the special National Assembly session broadcast live on national television.